Creating careers
“Economic recovery has been slower for young people. The average employment rate for young people in 2022 is lower than before the labor crisis."
“Economic recovery has been slower for young people. The average employment rate for young people in 2022 is still lower than before the labor crisis in more than half of all OECD countries. Promoting integrated and comprehensive employment and training services would help reconnect vulnerable groups with jobs.”
- OECD Employment Outlook Report 2022
Education, youth employment, and workplace opportunity are some of the working world’s most long-standing challenges. iXperience was founded and built on a commitment to addressing these challenges in new and innovative ways, where experience and learning are integrated. The iXperience learning model is built on four foundational pillars.
Every year we evaluate and revise every single one of our courses. By doing so, we ensure that what our students learn is up-to-date, formulated by experts working in their respective industries today. The skills that we teach encompass many of the world’s most in-demand jobs. These skills and industries are pathways to bucking the global trend toward unemployment, and being able to enter the workforce with the right hands-on experience right out of college.
The idea is that the course we teach align with global skills gaps, ensuring that our students have what they need to enter the workforce experienced and equipped. According to LinkedIn’s employment research unit, graduates entering the workforce with experience in data science, software engineering, management consulting – and related business consulting positions – and investment finance will have ample opportunities to define a global career in the coming years. With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way we work, borders are becoming less of a restriction on the movement of skills, and those with the right experience and the right collaborative mindset can build up international experience quickly.
“Studies of countries with the highest levels of assessed student achievement show that a focus on a careful selection process for teachers to be trained, rigorous training including mentorship and apprenticeship, and an overall elevation in the cultural status of teachers all correlate directly with these high-achieving student populations.”
- Study by the University of Texas at Arlington
While the course material itself is crucial to the impact that an iX course has, the teaching teams who deliver them are just as crucial. There is ample evidence that truly great teachers allow students to achieve exponentially higher results; this is why iX dedicates so much to the process of finding the right teachers for our courses. Our Education team sources industry experts to teach our courses, often finding industry experts on sabbatical to teach for us. This allows us to bring educators to our programs who have rich experience and a deep understanding of the nature of the industry they’re teaching about, how the tools work and what the right mentality is.
This is not a theory-based university course; learning at iX means getting real-world insights into industry. With our Head Teachers coming from the likes of McKinsey, Microsoft, Meta, Accenture and more, all of our students are taught by the brightest minds out there.
“Our Head Teacher taught the subject really well, but more importantly, he seemed excited to teach the class. This excitement motivated me and the other students to perform well and put in good work rather than just busy work. He also engaged with us, knowing us by name and asking about our days.”
- Silas Coleman, University of Chicago, iX Data Science 2022
For many iX students, the internship component is why they choose to do a course with us. Being able to return to university with real-world experience on their resumes and LinkedIn profiles immediately adds weight to future job applications and interviews. We’ve seen many cases where our alumni have reached out to us after graduating, letting us know that their international work experience as a result of iX was a major talking point in their recruitment interviews. It enabled them to stand out from the crowd and bring something unique to the table!
What makes iX internships truly exceptional is their variety and hands-on nature. Our internships are scoped ahead of time, and the outcomes are agreed upon before the program begins. For this reason, no iX internship will ever be just about making photocopies or doing meaningless administrative work; they’re in-depth, where each project makes a material difference to the company hosting iX students. On top of that, every internship project is specifically scoped to align with the learning outcomes of the course, so every student walks into the internship equipped with the right skills to tackle the challenge.
We are pioneering a new model of education, where we’re actively building multiple ways to earn tuition fees back. On top of our financial aid program – which has disbursed over $1 million in grants for iX students to attend our programs – there are multiple ways to earn the program tuition fees back in full or more.
At the end of every program, students are given the opportunity to join iX as a Business Development Associate, representing iX on their home university campus. With first-hand knowledge of our programs and how transformative the experience is, it’s easier for prospective students to chat with an alum who has done an iX program in the past!
Our students also often return as Teaching Assistants on future courses. Having direct knowledge and experience in past courses makes alumni outstanding TAs, especially when it comes to guiding new students through coursework and internship. Passing knowledge on is an innate part of what makes us successful; knowing how to learn is one thing, but learning how to teach is an even more enriching and rewarding experience.
We have also opened up opportunities for alumni to join our programs as coaches for new students to connect with like-minded individuals who can provide insight into the working world or the final stages of a university career. Having a guide who has taken the road ahead of you can make all the difference.
Whether you’re exploring the options available to you, trying out a new interest or solidifying your career path, the combination of learning in-demand skills and getting real work experience is through an iXperience program. Our model of experiential learning embedded in practical application is a unique one that catapults our students into the careers they thought they could only dream of. After all, experience is everything.
